silence me… completely, complete me – for words can find another day but silence can't be lost today.

In life after life, in age after age, forever.
My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs,
That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms,
In life after life, in age after age, forever.

Whenever I hear old chronicles of love, its age-old pain,
Its ancient tale of being apart or together.
As I stare on and on into the past, in the end you emerge,
Clad in the light of a pole-star piercing the darkness of time:
You become an image of what is remembered forever.

You and I have floated here on the stream that brings from the fount.
At the heart of time, love of one for another.
We have played along side millions of lovers, shared in the same
Shy sweetness of meeting, the same distressful tears of farewell-
Old love but in shapes that renew and renew forever.

Today it is heaped at your feet, it has found its end in you
The love of all man’s days both past and forever:
Universal joy, universal sorrow, universal life.The memories of all loves merging with this one love of ours –
And the songs of every poet past and forever.

சாமி தவித்தான் …தாயை படைத்தான் – and mothers were sent because HE knew men too would cry. Happy Mother’s Day.

The gods made men, strong men… who were of equal to them to rule the earth. And, they sent mothers from the highest heavens – women, who could teach worthy men to LOVE and to rule with LOVE – women, whom the gods too knew as mothers. Celebrating every women …mothers, grandmas, aunts, sisters, girlfriends, wives, daughters who teach us everyday to love the world a little better, Thank you “MA”.

Various texts discuss with great length on the practice of religious debates across the ancient world. Often too, such debates were precursors to wars in the name of gods. Wars were perfectly possible all so often because everyone was a believer of something. And, some of us just needed a reason to get to war…

Intellectuals argue that all is fair in modern comparative religious studies. Discussing religion is a risky affair, more within a diverse community fabric and the act of debating religion brings the entire argument to an elevated dimension. Both, the giving and receiving parties need to be in an able state of mind to compare – agree and agree to disagree, with utter rationalism. An ideal state. Difficult. Very difficult. Emotion stimulates the mind 3000 times faster than rational thought. Men, are emotional animals.

Why risk it?

If you prove to me that Shri Ganesh is “Bhagwaan” then I will eat the prasad. – Zakir Naik.

Yes… of course… for a healthy discussion purpose aimed in building inter-faith ties, in a perfect world. Far, far, away.

Shri Ganesh is Bhagwaan. Allah is Bhagwaan. And, in Einstein’s words, I too see a clock, but I cannot envision the clockmaker. The human mind is unable to conceive of the four dimensions, so how can it conceive of a God, before whom a thousand years and a thousand dimensions are as one? To understand my answer, you need to understand my faith a little better. It will go to the extent of wave-particle duality concept in quantum mechanics…. and beyond it. It will take time. It will take a lot of patience.

It is the same faith that allows the likes of Zakir Naik to speak in India and let them live.

Interesting it is that the message comes from a world acclaimed (needs further citation) authority whose centre of belief is لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله – lā ilāha illà l-Lāh, Muḥammadur rasūlu l-Lāh – there is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. – Zakir Naik should not even be questioning the existence of another bhagwaan in the first place. All for a prasad? Is he going through a series of deliberate reaffirmations towards his own faith? You see, I too read the Quran. No authority like Zakir Naik or Shah Kirit. Just a curious mind.

The elders would agree that the holiest of us are often the quietest. In Hinduism, in Tamil, these men are known as Mouna Gurus. Silent teachers. A spiritual guru who speaks very little… and in his silence we hear all the truths of the world. Ever experienced one? They are hard to find. To a greater extent, I believe that it is the silent ones who hold the world together.

Let Zakir Naik speak in Malaysia. It is a noisy world. And, it may end in 2012.